The Fallout of Gun Gale Online
by Anime Aikouka
Summary: Asada Shino had hoped that the first VRMMORPG would allow her to make friends and to help her overcome her trauma over guns. Unfortunately, Kayaba Akihiko thought otherwise. Sinon-centric. SAO never took place; GGO is the death trap. Now crossposted onto Archive Of Our Own and Wattpad.
1. The Shot Heard Around the World

CH 1: The Rising Gale

* * *

The release of the first VRMMORPG wasn't something Asada Shino had taken notice of, until a passing sentence from her grandmother made her think about joining a world of guns.

When Shino was ten, she and her mother had been at a post office when a man smelling of alcohol attempted to rob it. When her mother was knocked to the ground, she'd stood up to the man. The robber knocked Shino into the wall, dropping the gun as he did so. As it skittered a few feet, Shino grabbed it off the ground and aimed for the man. She pulled the trigger once. Twice. Both hit the man in the chest. Blood started to pour out of the man as he slumped down to the ground.

The Type 54 in Shino's hands started to shake as she hyperventilated. Her vision swam. She had killed a person. She had killed a man. These thoughts echoed through her mind as the pool of blood slowly spread over to her. The man's blood had soaked through her stockings and her skirt as she lay trembling on the ground.

The police eventually arrived, but it wasn't quick enough to prevent a ten-year-old from taking a life.

Due to the attack on the post office, Shino's already frail mother became unable to move from a bed and had quickly fallen into a deep coma. The cost of having doctor visits and keeping her healthy was too much for the one girl, so she'd had to find someone willing to pay her to do a job to help pay for the medical expenses that were due.

She'd worked as a car mechanic to help pay for the expenses, though only part-time as she still had to go to school. In what little free time she had left, she studied.

When she went to school, the students had targeted her due to their opinion on her having to kill someone. The bullies would purposefully laugh in her face when they showed her any form of a gun. The images would make her hyperventilate and have flashbacks to the day in the post office.

The cold metal of the gun as she held it. The pressure on the trigger as she pulled it back. The bang as it impacted and the man's dying gasps. The blood. So much blood! Thick, dark, blood! Blood! - who would ever know that someone could bleed this much - the blood pooled around her knees and soaked her skirt, her pants, her underwear - the blood coated her skin. The man's grisly face was still charred permanently into her brain. Tears streamed down her face, slicing two lines down her horror-filled expression.

When she had found a game that had guns as the main focus point, she wasn't really excited about it. She wanted to be done with the bullying. This game would help her overcome her fear. While she may not like it, she had seen others speaking about it and had realized this could be her chance to get over her trauma. She saw that this could be her chance to reconnect with people, so she would not be teased and taunted.

Even if she did want to play it, how would she? She didn't have that much money. It was almost fifty-five thousand yen — she only had about that much each month before food costs, medical bills and school materials. There would be no way for her to save up as the launch was only a few weeks away.

Shino needed to play this game to get over the trauma that she has had for almost two and a half years. She needed to find something that would help her push her boundaries and make it so she had to face it. So that she had to fight against it.

Shino was able to get the game on a miraculous sale that she wasn't expecting. The store that Shino was able to find was a smaller shop that had a few copies of the game.

That still left the question of when she would be able to do this. She breathed a sigh of relief as she looked at the calendar. It started on a Sunday. Sundays generally were free days; the only day she had almost free.

During the weeks leading up to the launch, Shino researched all that she could about the RPG genre and the game system, carefully avoiding the guns, though it didn't stop her from having a panic attack halfway through a post on the way that the gun's physics worked. In her opinion, the author went into too much detail about the way the blood and guts would shatter and explode.

Gun Gale Online used the SPECIAL system, a way of using stats that was very different from other games. In this game style, forty points were given to start. These could be distributed into the seven stats. The minimum amount for each stat was one, leaving only thirty-three points to be distributed.

(The reason that this bore remarkable resemblance to a popular game series a few years ago is that Kayaba Akihiko had bought the license for a Fallout spinoff, which evolved into what it is now, an incredible open world RPG.)

Shino decided she would be a sniper, as that kept her far enough away that she is still facing her trauma, but is still far away from the actual combat if she were to freeze up.

Pointedly ignoring the weapons, she read the information and memorized it. Reading more, she discovered that the "I" in SPECIAL was the most important. It made the skills go up faster as well as increasing XP gains.

The build she found was a sniper build that was similar to one from a previous game with a similar mechanic system.

One of the first choices she made was taking a recurring perk called Intense Training. It gave an extra stat point, to be distributed however the player wanted. The perk was very versatile, and had many uses in the system used by the Fallout games.

Later on in the game, there was a perk called Weapon Handling that would reduce the strength cost for all weapons by two. This would make it so the player could wield a Hecate II, and what was rumoured to be the best in the game that she was preparing for, Gun Gale Online.

She was following a build that focused on being a sniper, which involved having a build based around sneak attacks and a system called V.A.T.S.

V.A.T.S., Vault-tec Assisted Targeting System, wasn't used very often for snipers, as the distance for being able to use the V.A.T.S. was generally shorter than snipers tended to shoot from. One of the comments on the build was actually about how V.A.T.S. wasn't all that useful to the build, but the build still used the VATS hit chance of having a high Perception and Luck.

Jerked out of her thoughts by an alarm, Asada Shino realized that the server opening was soon, so she slid out of her chair. Slipping into the bed, she pulled the clunky NerveGear onto her head and spoke the words that would doom her.

"Rinku Sutato!"

* * *

A song played in the background, a soft, quiet sound. This was interrupted by a smooth male voice that started talking over the music.

"War. War never changes.

"The Romans waged war to gather slaves and wealth. Spain built an empire from its lust for gold and territory. Hitler shaped a battered Germany into an economic superpower.

"But war never changes.

"In the 21st century, war was still waged over the resources that could be acquired. Only this time, the spoils of war were also its weapons: Petroleum and Uranium. For these resources, China would invade Alaska, the US would annex Canada, and the European Commonwealth would dissolve into quarreling, bickering nation-states, bent on controlling the last remaining resources on Earth.

"In 2077, the storm of world war had come again. In two brief hours, most of the planet was reduced to cinders. In those two hours, mankind had changed; the world had changed.

"And now, two hundred years later, the sun scorches what is left of this desolate place. The grass withers and dies in its unrelenting heat and overwhelming radiation. The animals die, and those that haven't died are changed, mutated beyond recognition.

"As we step into this light, out of our once safe vaults, we recognize what we lost, but also what we have to gain.

"Now, the doors are open. Go forth, to bring the Wastes back to its former glory."

The song "Blue Moon" starts playing as a slideshow of pictures are presented while a loading circle spins in the corner. After a minute, the music fades and a screen with a slight green tint appears.

Create a Character?

The blinking answers hover for a second before they vanish.

A perfect copy of Asada Shino stood in the mirror that appeared. The person in the mirror changed rapidly, a rainbow of colors flashing across her vision. The avatar settled on a character with teal hair and blue-green eyes. Both her avatar and herself were the same height, about 141 cm.

Shino pressed the accept button, making another green-tinted screen appear.

Choose a Faction

Brotherhood of Steel

The New California Republic

Caesar's Legion

The Institute

Gun Runners

Khans

Commonwealth Minutemen

People's Liberation Army

She chose the NCR, as it was the one she was most familiar with. During her research, it had come up multiple times and seemed to fit the build she was attempting to make. She also rightly assumed that the faction that she chose would act as the starting spawn point.

'And so our story begins…' she thought as the world vanished.

A flash of color splashes her vision as the world tilted and spun out of control, and her senses overloaded. The world spun around in a dizzying array of lights as they rocketed toward a place an infinite way into the center.

A flash of a conversation with the ghostly words from a man with a checkered suit('Benny', her mind provided) and a familiar face, one she had seen on all of the research she had done for the game. "The game was rigged from the start."

The rapid flashing stopped as the sensory overload abruptly ended. The world still spun somewhat as a single face loomed out of the darkness. It was a young man's face, with the rugged beginnings of a beard. He smirked a little before pulling back silently. A light flickered on above her, revealing the chipped walls and rusted metal of the room surrounding her. The yellow name that he had above him signified him as an NPC.

Shino wrinkled her nose at the stench of smoke that wafted off of him. That was one of the problems of having a FullDive: it meant being able to touch, taste, smell and hear everything that happened.

Sitting up, she glanced at herself, realizing she only had a tank top and shorts on. A flush came over her face before she glanced back up at the man whose smirk seemed to grow at the angry look he was given.

She quickly tried to tackle him with a screech, but her weaker limbs and lighter body did little to him.

A look of concern covered his face before he gave a reassuring smile. "Whoa, I wouldn't move around so much. You took a pretty bad hit back there."

Feeling her limbs are heavier than before, she tested each before setting them on the bed, realizing that this was part of the character creation process. "What happened?"

A grimace marred his face before he stated, "There was a raid by Caesar's Legion. I'm surprised that you even made it out alive. Well, at least in one piece. Though if our good doctor had any say in it, you might have lost your leg. Doc Brig said you had some damage to your head."

Shino glanced at her leg, immediately seeing the scar that sat in her leg. It was pink and stretched almost four inches across her thigh and left another pink scar on the back of her thigh, a few inches below her rear.

"What happened?"

"No one knows, but the raid was a few days ago. You were out of it for a while there. Can you remember anything? How about your name?"

This is so odd. It feels almost like I am talking to a normal person! I guess I should just follow his lead.

"No, I don't. Can you tell me what I was like? What was my name? What was I good at?" she responded.

"Yeah, I can stay for a few minutes before I have to wait. There ain't no rest for the wicked.

"But, yeah, you came running in here when you had just turned fourteen. The NCR couldn't just leave an orphaned girl wandering the wastes. So we took you in. You had said you didn't have a name and just to call you-"

The game paused here as a screen popped into Shino's face. Giving a slight smile, she entered the name she had decided on: Sinon.

"-Sinon." The man gave a smile that made her suddenly realize he wasn't as young as she thought he was. His hair was graying and his eyes looked older. The smile brightened and his hair seemed to regain its color. "We fed you, we clothed you, and we trained you. You were always on the petite side, and we didn't even realize you needed glasses until someone brought up your squinting in class."

Trait Added: Small Frame (+1 to AGI, but limbs are crippled more easily)

"Some of your other unique traits were..."

A menu popped up with a list of traits to pick from.

Shino chose the Fast Shot and the Quick Hands traits, which together gave her a 50% faster fire rate, as the bonus was multiplicative, not additive. Fast Shot was very good, as the built-in accuracy of sniper rifles was much higher than any other weapons in the game. The description of the traits were as follows:

Fast Shot: 20% faster fire rate, but 20% reduced accuracy.

Quick Hands: Increases fire rate by 25% and hack and lockpicking success rate by 15%, but -1 STR.

Like most of the Fallout games, each weapon type (Energy Weapons, Guns, Melee Weapons) has a leveling system of 1 to 100.

Unlike the Fallout games, Gun Gale Online had more classical RPG elements. Each weapon class (Assault Rifle, Sniper Rifle, Pistol, Submachine Gun) had levels; a skill could be unlocked for every level. There were at least fifty levels for each weapon class, but the skills, known as Gales, numbered over two hundred and fifty per weapon class.

Each weapon had three levels as well, giving what would have been a weapon mod in many of the other games. They also had modifiers in the name, giving damage boosts or fire speed increases.

"You were SPECIAL too."

The game paused here yet again. A screen appeared in her vision.

Choose your SPECIAL:

She configured her SPECIAL stats to conform to the build she followed.

S: 5(6-1 from Quick Hands)

P: 6

E: 4

C: 1

I: 9

A: 8(7+1 from Small Frame)

L: 7

"You seemed to be good at-"

Here the game paused again. A screen slid into her vision and she saw the list of all the overarching skills.

She decided to tag Sneak, Repair, and Guns, adding 25 to each of the skills.

Guns: 20-45

Repair: 22-47

Sneak: 20-45

She glanced at the list one more time before nodding. That looked as good as it was going to get, at least at this point. A level one character never looked very good at first. Eventually, those stats would be maxed.

There was a skill that was specific to each weapon that unlocked with every 20 points in the individual weapons skill tree, that also went up to 1000. Even when the max in the overarching skills was reached, the individual weapons would only have 100. The individual weapon skills were much harder to gain than the others; it mostly was earned by grinding. Experience gain for the individual weapons was calculated by the damage done divided by two(D/2). Sniper rifles had an advantage on experience gain because of this.

She had just finished the character creation process when an alarm sounded. The ringing echoed around the room for a second before the NPC grabbed her by her arm and helped Shino onto her feet.

"That's the alarm for a large group of hostiles. It could be Caesar standing before those gates. Unfortunately, that may be a large enough force that it will break through the defenses," he spoke to Shino quickly.

"Here, take this," he handed her a set of military fatigues. "Make sure you put on that beret: it is how we identify the bodies of our comrades."

"Yeah," Shino agreed

Despite her misgivings, Shino was excited; it was her first battle. The NPC prompted her to choose a weapon, giving her choices of various rusty weapons.

She chose the Rusty Remington 700 as her starting weapon. The starting weapon that was chosen was meant to help improve the drop mechanic, giving more weapons and ammo that corresponded to the type chosen. That was not saying that it was impossible to get other types of weapons, just harder.

As she ran toward the door that would let her join the fight, she was in a large group with others. Before splitting away, she . With a nod to a fellow sniper, she quickly opened the door to the roof of the one-story building.

A blast of sweltering heat blistered over her skin as the Mojave Desert made itself known. It was an unending stretch of sand and stone, the only things dotting the war-worn landscape, other than the few dozen troops of Caesar's Legion, being a few players wearing the uniform. Unfortunately, they couldn't choose where to start, just who to start with. The chosen place wasn't always the best place to start. Still, it was quite beneficial for backstories and roleplaying purposes, which was nice for those that cared.

The number of expected role players was surprising, though expected, since it was a world-wide game that had over 250,000 players as the starting player count, most of whom were people that had played the previous games of a similar genre.

All previous Fallout settings had been remade in this game, with old trains connecting the maps. There was a way to walk all the way, but it was mostly pointless, though there might be a few easter eggs that the beta testers hadn't found. The travel time was realistic, so they didn't want to have a four-month trip across an empty area. It was speculated that not only was the United States included, so were Mexico and Canada. It was hoped that the whole world would eventually be included in this game, as the technology improved, probably as DLC.

Shino didn't really care about all that, having never played the previous games, but she could say that it did feel like a desert.

A particularly loud boom shook her out of her thoughts. The NCR was making progress, but it was slow going. The estimated 50 players and 10 NPCs from the NCR were facing a much larger group of 75 players and 20 NPCs from Caesar's Legion. However, due to their fortified position, for every NCR member killed, Caesar's Legion lost two. The battle went on for a few minutes.

As the thundering roars of the multitude of weapons joined into a cacophony, she quickly started to lose control. She had been distracting herself with her thoughts, but she had to do something. Her breathing quickened.

The blood, the steel, the cold tile as the warm blood slid across it.

She suddenly realized: she didn't have to worry. This wasn't real. This wasn't her. Her avatar's heart rate sputtered to a halt, leaving a slowly breathing Sinon — This wasn't Shino anymore, this was Sinon, she told herself — to focus on the fight. Lining up a shot, she fired.

The bullet arced through the cloudless sky and went through the head of a Legion member. The head exploded, sending brains all over the ground, the body slumping to the ground. Even still, Sinon continued. The player broke into red motes of light, fluttering away from the body like ashes in the wind. He was dead for now, but would respawn at his faction base, though only after the battle was over. The budding sniper lined another shot, and another, taking care to make them lethal and trying to hit wherever was available: chests, heads, torsos, legs, and arms all were pierced by her fast-moving projectiles.

All said she got around three kills, which she felt was pretty good.

As the last enemy faded into motes of red light, a trumpet sound played a small ditty as a screen showed her rewards from her kills and completing the quest.

Some Basic Legionary Armor, a Pocket Knife, a Rusty Glock, and some .223 ammo for her Rusty Remington 700. It wasn't a bad haul, especially for her first battle. The quest had also given her an item that would upgrade her weapon's level by one. It was a really good item, but not very good for the beginning of the game, as it was much better to save it for later levels, which took a lot more experience

None of it was very useful for her, but the XP she got was enough for a level, bringing her up to level 2. A screen popped up, showing the list of perks that she had available.

A screen appeared showing her skills. After using the system and applying her points, the next screen appeared.

The large list of perks appeared in her face, giving her a slight grin. The build that she saw only followed the perks that were in that game. This game, however, had most perks from Fallout 3, 4, and New Vegas, along with a couple from Fallout 1, 2, and 76.

Due to the larger number of perks, a perk was gained every level instead of every two levels of the former Fallout games. Every fifth level gave two perks instead of the one. Some builds didn't need that many perks, like the sniper. Though the sniper could use a lot of the perks, they didn't need that many, mostly just the ones that increased speed, accuracy, or fire rate.

The general idea for snipers early on is to increase the attack speed. Sniper Rifles inherently fired slowly, to balance the game. The build would be entirely based on who had the most optimized build.

Sinon grabbed the Rapid Reload perk. That would boost her reload speed by 37%, as the bonuses are multiplicative. The boost would help her against what seemed to be the main enemies in the tutorial/ intro for the New California Republic.

Caesar's Legion was a group that was led by a man named Caesar, someone that was a dictator. Caesar's Legion has a joinable group that had many things looked down upon by today's society. They forced all women to be slaves and killed those they thought were weak.

Sinon shuddered. There is a reason I didn't join them.

Caesar's Legion had the largest spread of any organization, other than possibly the Brotherhood of Steel. The Brotherhood had different sub-factions that were isolated from each other, so whether or not they all agreed on things and could be considered one faction was questionable.

In Fallout: New Vegas, the Brotherhood were isolationists. They just sat in their bunker underground, uncaring of the problems of those above the surface. Some areas of the Brotherhood's influence hadn't even been discovered because they hid in their vaults. Nobody knew how far their reach spread.

A few minutes after their battle was over, a sound almost like a tolling bell rang out over the area. The hundreds of players in that area had to take a few seconds to realize that their Pip-Boys were the cause of it. The bell continued to toll for another minute before the sounds halted. The smiling face of a man appeared on the screen. Some would recognize him as Akihiko Kayaba, the creator of this game.

Soon, they would treat him like a devil in disguise.

"My name is Kayaba Akihiko, and I am the creator of this world. Some of you may have noticed the lack of a 'Log Out' button in your menus. This is not a defect in any way. This game was made to have this feature. You cannot log out of Gun Gale Online yourselves, and anyone attempting to remove the headgear will cause you to die. If your health reaches zero, you die. Already, 600 have not heeded this warning and have perished. You can never be released until the game is cleared by having all factions united against a common enemy. The only release you may have until then is the sweet release of death. Go forth, my players into this game. Go and complete the game," Akihiko Kayaba stated. A sickeningly sweet smirk appeared, sending shivers down the backs of the players.

"I will await your arrival. See you at the top! And good luck!"


	2. Lighting the Powder

CH 2: Lighting the Powder

* * *

"Oh, and before I forget, I have one last gift for all of you. If you would check your inventory, There is an item there that you may find useful. What is it useful for? I'll leave that up to you. Sayonara!" The face of Kayaba left the surface of the Pipboy. Shortly after, the inventory started flickering.

A horror-filled curiousity took over her and, still in shock, Sinon pressed the button. A light flickered its way to the item added: a Magic Mirror. Pressing once on the icon allowed it to appear in her hand. A slight green glow surrounded her, and a sound like shattering glass caused her to blink her eyes shut.

When nothing else happened, she glanced at the mirror that was still in her hand. A familiar face stared back at her. The brown hair, tied in the same way as always, but the face she had expected to see, Sinon's, had not appeared.

Instead, though Sinon stared into the mirror, Asada Shino stared back. The world paused for a few moments as tears started to gather in her eyes. Her world shattered.

How would she survive? The only reason she had made it this far was that her face is different and she could disconnect what she was doing to who she was. Now that she was entirely the same as her real self, she wasn't sure if she could.

Her hands shook as she realised she couldn't remember the faces of the three players that she had killed. The three orange markers had signified hostility, but they were still players.

Shino shook her head. They weren't just players, they were people. People who had lives, who had families. Who had children that they loved. She had just orphaned children. They would never see the faces of their children. Never see the world pass them by, as though forgotten. To be lumped into one group only known as the "Gun Gale Online: Kill Total." They wouldn't be remembered as the people they were, but as victims of a much larger scale.

Shino noticed her hands had started to turn wet as she shook, the psychological trauma taking a toll. She tried to settle down. She couldn't even make a shrine or even learn those players' names. She could barely even remember their face, the adrenaline of the battle clouding the memories.

Sinon stood, the Rusty Remington 700 strapped across her back. The stock of the rifle sat a bit behind her right ear and the end of the barrel hit her left thigh. She materialized a gray handkerchief that had been in her starting inventory, then pulled it up over her nose. Shino's expressive face was replaced with a mask of indifference that she crafted, and the panic faded and regret was replaced with confidence.

Sinon walked back into the building, welcoming the slightly cooler interior. The cold inside contrasted with the smoldering heat outside, making Sinon's skin become covered with goosebumps. Wiping the sweat off of her forehead, she adjusted her leathery armor, sweat already filling the small gaps, making the hardened leather stick uncomfortably to her skin. That was one of the unfortunate parts of the Full Dive technology: the feeling of touch. The sense of touch included the chill of cold steel on her skin and the sickening feeling of radiation poisoning as it slowly killed you.

Adjusting the leather didn't really help, but Sinon walked forwards anyways. The leather gave a small squeak as she started, but was silent afterward. The metal parts of the large rifle clicked against her armored thighs as she walked.

The rifle made more tapping sounds as Sinon strode forward. She kept her pace constant, and the room quieted as a single person did not have the same panicked attitude. She walked; never moving faster or slower, just one foot in front of the other. Traveling down the metal stairs, they creaked under her feet. She walked through the halls, the rifle still tapping her thigh, her shoes making taps

Her steps quickly took her out of the steel door on the other side of the room that the players had all gathered in.

* * *

As Sinon stepped out of the cold building back into the blinding light and the sweltering heat of the Mojave, a notification appeared.

Alert!:

This is the last chance to have a reset of character starting stats, traits, and perks.

Are you sure that you wish to proceed?

(YES) / (NO)

Hitting the yes button, she continued on her way out of the building. She reloaded her rifle, checking to make sure that the ammo was in the gun correctly.

The harsh sun once again hit her, the heat uncomfortable to her, as she had grown up in Japan's much colder climate, with temperatures only reaching around thirty-two degrees Celcius (eighty-nine degrees Fahrenheit). The temperature here was a perpetually blistering forty-five degrees Celsius (one hundred thirteen degrees Fahrenheit), a number that only dropped at night, to a somewhat more manageable seventeen degrees Celsius (sixty-two degrees Fahrenheit). The heat was simulated well.

'Too well. Damn you Kayaba,' thought Sinon angrily, her rage only enhanced by this unbearable heat. Thankfully, the clothes that Sinon thought were somewhat scandalous helped to reduce her heat. While in real life, the best way to dress in deserts was to wear light and loose clothing to protect the wearer from sandstorms and sunlight, this did not apply here, as sunburns were one of the few things not simulated by the game. Some health might be lost by staying under the sun for too long, but it was mostly irrelevant in the grand scheme of things.

There was only one real environmental factor that mattered and was an issue: Radiation. Unlike in the original Fallout games, where the player could get very irradiated without any large problem occurring, the radiation actually made the player get sick. This meant that radiation was something not easily brushed off. To balance this, radiation was somewhat easier to remove and added another challenge to the game, in which radiation was much more serious than it was in any other Fallout game.

Part of the issue with radiation was the lack of water that was uncontaminated with radiation..Water was a serious problem, and there were multiple quests in which towns could be supplied with water. If the towns were not provided with water often enough, people would start dying, including NPCs vital to quests. This meant that if water was not provided, many quests would automatically fail. Even if that was ignored, the players still had a hydration bar that would go down if they didn't drink enough water. This would reduce movement speed and SPECIAL points the farther it went down, and eventually kill them..

Like with the hydration bar, the Endurance stat would also affect the maximum amount of hunger and hydration, as well as the speed it decreased. Someone with a ten in Endurance could last two weeks without food, but someone with a four in Endurance, like her, could last around five days. This was calculated by the Endurance multiplied times 1.4. The speed of the decrease had to do with activities done and speed moved. For instance, if the player with a high endurance stat ran at their maximum speed a lot, the hunger would go down much faster than if they walked or rode in some sort of vehicle.

Water had a much smaller maximum. A ten in Endurance let the player have a five day period without drinking water. The four Endurance that Sinon had allowed her to go for two days without water. The time left on the hydration bar also varied with the temperature.

Drinking purified water restored double the amount of hydration that irradiated water did. Similarly, Irradiated food restored only half of the amount that normal food did, and also added 25 rads. That made unirradiated food and water extremely valuable. Sinon knew she had to find a good source of both.

Shaking her head, Sinon stopped trying to distract herself from her actual thoughts. The people she killed. They were dead, and she knew that she couldn't do anything about it. Of course, they weren't the first people that Sinon had killed. She shook her head before she could think about that.

The people she had killed in this reality were dead. This reality - she hesitated to call this a game - had already killed multiple people. She knew that the ones that she had killed were not the only dead, but she knew that there would be many more before the game was done. The goal that Kayaba had set, to unite all factions against a common enemy was one that she was almost positive would never happen. If a common enemy was found, it would have to be very strong. The enemy had to be hard enough to kill to be an actual factor. The common enemy could be a faction, but that would mean more unneeded death. If the enemy was an NPC, it would not matter as much, as the players could unite against the NPC's without any player having to needlessly die.

Sinon thought to herself in the heat of the Mojave sun, some players would not believe that the world was actually as deadly as it was, while still not willing to test the system themselves. They would be fine with the death of others, just not themselves. Many players might kill themselves to escape this new reality that they were in. It was human nature to not believe in just what they had heard and would live in polite ignorance until the day they died.

She knew that she would have to do her part to beat this game.

She made a vow, right at that moment, still outside of the starting base. She knew that she would have to protect those that couldn't protect themselves. She would protect the ones who didn't want to fight, no matter what she had to do.

She would beat this shithole, this 'game', one bullet at a time.


	3. Ready! Aim! Fire!

CH 3: Ready! Aim! Fire!

* * *

A shot rang out, the sound bouncing off the walls of a canyon in a desert in what was once Nevada. The gun was reloaded quickly, the bolt sliding back into place with a click. Another shot rang off the dusty ground, a bullet hitting a creature across the canyon.

The bullet went through its head, killing it in one shot. The bear-like creature, a Yao Guai, fell to the ground, the dust spreading around it.

There were now three Yao Guai lying on the ground, a hole in each of their heads. Virtual blood matted the fur, small blood splatters scattering the ground.

Sinon wiped the sweat off of her head, the heat causing her to grow tired quickly. She took out a bottle of pure water. As she drank, the hydration bar on the top of her field of view filled.

She then took a small break, as the three Yao Guai in the pack were dead. She briefly looked at her HUD: two bars, one yellow-orange and the other blue, sitting at the top. A red bar sat at the top left corner of the screen, red ticks lining the bar. A small radiation symbol sat on the left side of the red bar.

An area on the bottom right corner showed her current weapon and t things bound to her shortcuts — a specific set of movements that would trigger them. Things like stimpaks would not automatically trigger, but would just appear in her hand. The shortcuts were customizable, allowing her to make her own motions and get an item.

Sinon had found several ways to speed up certain actions. One thing that Sinon had done was to make the movement that she went through to put in new ammo one of her shortcuts, allowing the bullets to automatically appear in her hand, ready for a reload. Another thing she'd done was set the gesture of injecting herself as the shortcut for Stimpaks. This let her use them almost instantly.

Generally, the shortcut system had a few seconds of delay, causing a physical draw to be faster, hence why most would just carry their weapons, but her workarounds mitigated that drawback.

She looked at the bottom left corner which, while not currently active, would show experience gain. A small Vault Boy in her top right corner signified notifications. It would show if she had a new friend request, party request, message, important information about her currently equipped items, and if any new quest lines were available.

Looking again, she realized the Vault-Boy was flashing; she had a notification. She opened her menu by flicking up with her index and pointer finger. This menu didn't require touch.

She swiped to the second tab of her menu, which had a blinking light next to the title of the tab, which was "Messages." One of the items on the list was bold, a conversation with someone called 'Argo'.

The menu opened up to the conversation she had with this 'Argo' person.

Sinon: Any new information on a common enemy?

Argo: Yes, but none that would not cause unneeded suffering and death. I know you care about that, Sinon.

Sinon: Thanks for trying. Let me know if you have any information about good quests, then.

*NEW* Argo: Actually, I do have a good quest for you. Supposedly you can get any World-Class gun from the final boss.

This was news. A World-Class weapon was one of the best weapons in the game, just below the Reality-Class weapon. World-Class was a .5% drop from any enemy with health above 500. Essentially, the only monsters with that high health were Deathclaws and Bosses.

Deathclaws were one of the few enemies that would scale with the level, regardless of zone level. The Deathclaw leveled with the player unless the player was a lower level than the zone.

As such, getting World or Reality Class weapons was almost a myth. A person with higher Luck would have a higher drop chance. Instead of a .5%, it might be a 1% for those at 10 Luck. Few actually had a 10 in luck, as it was mostly useless for anything other than VATS in the previous games. With Sinon's 7, she would have a .8% drop chance. It was very hard to get no matter what was done, but the points in Luck would help to increase the commonality of the rarer drops.

Sinon: Where is this quest?

Argo: I have it written on paper.

Alert!

You have received a Trade Request from Argo. Would you like to receive it?

(Yes) / (No)

Sinon pressed the 'Yes' button, changing the screen to one showing lines of slots divided by a barrier. The top was labeled "Argo" and the bottom with "Sinon." Argo placed a bundle of lined paper titled 'World-Class Quest.' Sinon placed a thousand bottle caps there as payment.

Argo then placed an item titled '5000' into one of the slots. The item name could be seen by the other player, allowing Argo to raise the amount if she felt the information was more valuable than that.

Sinon increased the amount to 5000 caps, then pressed the ready button. Argo accepted the trade, giving Sinon the bundle of paper. Sinon didn't use her caps very often, as drops generally were a better way of getting items. A few things weren't found so easily though, such as stimpaks, ammo, and medicinal items. Her ammunition was hard to come by as well, so the NPC shops had better stock than what could be found in the world.

She opened the bundle of paper that Argo gave her.

Questline

A quest can be found in the area north of the Hoover Dam. The boss, according to a few sources, drops a guaranteed World-Class gun. This quest is recommended for those who have at least a level of 30. The area is full of large, open grasslands. The quest takes an estimated four hours, not including the time needed to get there.

Sinon: Thanks for this.

Argo: No problem. Thank you for the business.

Sinon picked up her rifle, swung it across her back and headed for Hoover Dam.

* * *

Sinon now stood by the area indicated on a map attached to the bundle of papers. This quest would be a big step for her, as her current weapon was only Epic-Class. This could boost her damage by quite a bit, depending on what she got.

A pistol would still be helpful, as that was what she had as her secondary weapon, but a shotgun would be useless as anything other than something to sell or trade.

One item that she had only heard rumors about was the PGM Ultima Ratio Hecate II. It was a 50 caliber anti-materiel rifle that had a very strong hit. It could practically explode some enemies.

She took a quick glance at her menu before continuing on her way.

Sinon

Level 24

Wandering Waster

S: 6

P: 8

E: 5

C: 1

I: 9

A: 8

L: 8

Traits:

Small Frame

Fast Shot

Quick Hands

Perks:

Awareness

Lead Belly

Tag!

Chem Resistance

Friend of the Night

Rapid Reload

Hawk Eyes

Gunslinger 2/5

Intense Training 5/10

Swift Learner 3/3

Educated

Travel Light

Bloody Mess

Commando

Living Anatomy

Quick Draw

Here and Now

Miss Fortune

Fast Metabolism

Silent Running

Sniper

Light Step

Health: 295

Stamina: 89

Her perks were essentially custom-tailored to be good for the sniper build. Unfortunately, there was no way to undo a perk choice, so she didn't want to test the other perks that might also have worked for her class, sticking with the build she'd memorized of which she was familiar with.

It somewhat limited her choices, but she tried to keep a build, not wanting to mar it too much with perks that might not work as well as advertised.

These perks were fairly good for her build. The farther she got on in levels, the more choices she had. She had probably 20 perks that were sniper themed she could now choose from, at least when compared to the total from all of the other games.

She was fairly certain she'd seen a character that was a legitimate cowboy, with the leather vest and everything. While normally there would be more doing joke type builds, the fact that this was a game that led to death tended to sort them out, one way or another.

She felt prepared, however, for the quest coming up, despite the fact that she was fairly under-leveled for it. The large spaces advertised meant that she had a lot of room to work with her sniper rifle and pick off enemies at range, making the level recommendation not actually apply to her.

She took the final step into the quest area, andan alert appeared in her vision.

Hidden Quest activated!

'Find and protect the stranded wasters!'

Recommended Level: 30

She kept walking into the area. Settling down on a hill with two rocks on it, she rested the barrel of her rifle on the rocks, stabilizing it. She looked through the scope of her rifle. Swiveling the rifle around on the bump, she saw nothing. The area was fairly hilly, blocking most of her vision of the area.

It was day, which meant that she could see better than she could at night, though with her Friends of the Night perk, she could still see fairly well.

She heard a slight scuffling sound behind her.

Calculating quickly, she knew that she wouldn't be able to carry her heavy rifle fast enough to run away from anything. She also was lying down, so she couldn't bring her rifle around fast enough to fire with any certainty.

She also couldn't get a good shot of if she was laying on her back like that. If it could sneak up on her, it was probably a smaller enemy, meaning that her pistol should finish it off easily. Rolling onto her back while pulling out her pistol, she readied it to fire at the enemy.

A smirking humanoid stared back at her.

"God damn it, Argo! I thought I was about to die there!"

"That was kind of the point, Sinonon."

"Could you not do that ever again? Why are you even here?"

Argo shrugged before answering Sinon. "Free XP? I don't know. You get me as a distraction and if you get any drops I could use, you give them to me."

Sinon looked unimpressed. "You do realize that my build is meant to not be discovered in the first place, right?"

"And your point, Sinonon? If nothing else, I can support you if you get trapped."

Sinon wanted to send Argo away but knew that Argo was too stubborn to actually leave, even if she was asked to.

Argo's build also relied on Sneak skills. Her build specialized in fast strikes using VATS and getting high bonus damage from surprise or ambush attacks. Unfortunately, unless she killed the target in the first hit and the target was alone, she had a large disadvantage against them.

A build like Sinon's actually complimented her build very well, as Sinon could pick off the enemies that would be a problem, allowing Argo to swoop in and pick off the rest.

It was this fact that convinced Sinon to join up with the information seller.

Party Invite:

Argo has invited you to join her party.

(Y) / (N)

Sinon pressed the affirmative button, hoping that she wouldn't regret it.

* * *

Sinon regretted her decision. As soon as she pressed the button, Argo immediately began an interrogation.

Sinon walked around, trying to find the quest objective, weathering the constant questions from her companion.

"What's your favorite color?"

"What is your current set-up?"

"How are you such a good shot on a sniper?"

"What is the reason for your username?"

"What is the answer to life, the universe, and everything?"

"Sinonon, why are you ignoring me?"

"Sinonon! Hello?"

"Sinonon answer me!"

Sinon felt what felt like a comical amount of sweat drop down the back of her head. Argo was pouting, acting like she was about to cry. Argo fell to the floor, big sobs shaking her body.

"Why are you doing this to me, Sinonon?"

Sinon kept watch, scanning the horizon for enemies. Seeing a slight flicker on the horizon, one that she knew Argo couldn't see, she called for Argo's attention.

"Argo. Possible enemies spotted. 4-5 km out. 2 o'clock."

Argo immediately stopped her fake sobs, getting up and trying to see.

"Where? I don't see them." Argo visibly looked confused. She went as far as looking through binoculars.

"I have a perk, Hawk Eyes, that boosts my render distance. I can see farther, though it's not that detailed unless I use binoculars or my scope. It also improves my vision in general."

"Okay. How did you get the perk? Sounds useful even if I don't use a sniper."

"The requirements are to have a perception over 8. I think there are upgrades if I had my perception higher, though."

"Cool. Might have to do some Intense Training, then."

"Yep," Sinon replied to her before she thought of something amusing. "That'll cost you. 1000 caps."

"How about this, I'll give you some caps whenever I sell that information. I might even include some more information that might help you later."

"Aight, we should head out in case they either move or despawn."

"Yeah."

They started walking to what Sinon had seen in the distance. The things that Sinon saw seemed to be coming towards them as they walked.

Argo walked beside her. When Sinon estimated it to be about 2 km away, her quest was updated to show that the possible enemies that could be seen were the stranded NPCs that needed to be saved.

Setting up her rifle, Sinon propped it on two rocks that formed a resting spot for her barrel.

"Go on ahead. The radiofrequency is 274. I'm assuming you have a microphone, so just tell me when you are in position."

"Aight. Talk to you later."

As Argo walked off, Sinon continued her setup. She lay down behind the rifle. She placed glasses on her face to try to protect herself from the dust that might fly up, and wrapped a cloth around the bottom of her face, which gave her a bonus on not being discovered after her shot.

Sinon started to adjust the scoping for the rifle, calculating the distance, wind resistance, gravity drop, and other interfering factors. Thankfully, she had a lot of practice with mental math from previous shots and had a basic idea of where to begin.

This… whatever it should be called, had all of the elements of real-life that could affect bullets. Bullet drop followed physics and wind actually did something, unlike most games in which if you pointed at the target, it would likely hit.

There was a bullet circle that helped the aim, but the bullet circle was not only much less accurate than manually aim, but it also let the enemy know the general idea of where the shot came from before the shot was even fired. This made actual aim much better and a more valuable skill to have.

An item she had that greatly helped was a Weather Module. It gave basic information about wind speed, temperature, and the chance of rain. The item also included the height above sea level.

It could even be set up to provide that information about the areas surrounding her party members.

"Sinon, I'm going to need some backup! There are super mutants up here!"

As she calculated the shot, she determined that she would need to aim a small bit over the head of the super mutants. The shot had to be almost 2 km now, which meant she had to do this with a more careful approach.

She aimed at the first enemy, then started to make small adjustments to her rifle, zeroing it in on the target.

"Sinon! You didn't tell me they were super mutants!"

"Didn't think that would be a problem. Isn't your build supposed to be very good at taking these out?"

"Well, yes, but I don't have everything that I need in order to do that."

Sinon blinked. She hadn't realized that it was a problem. She had forgotten that super mutants were a difficulty for other players. Super mutants were so slow that Sinon could pick them out at range before they got close.

"You did say that this was a level 30 quest. It isn't too surprising."

"Well, that may be true, but I can't deal reliable damage."

Sinon blinked, then groaned, replying shortly after.

"Fine. Distract them, I'll take care of them. You in position?"

"Yes, but I barely have enough health to ta-"

"Too bad."

A shudder rippled through Sinon's arms as the gun fired. The gun barely moved, as the stock of the gun hit her shoulder.

A loud boom, reminiscent of the sound of thunder, rang out from her gun.

"Damn it, Sinon!"

Sinon let a wry grin show on her face as the super mutant's torso exploded, sending its blood and organs flying, even exploding the head.

Bloody Mess had activated, meaning that it was a guaranteed insta-kill.

Sinon quickly slid her rifle to the right, calculating the shot for one of the four still left.

She quickly aimed, and fired again. This shot hit its arm, possibly crippling it.

With a fast glance down the scope, another shot was fired. Sinon had to be even more careful now with her shots, as they could hit Argo, who was flitting around the battlefield, her 10 agility giving her a very fast speed as she sprinted, doubling her normal speed, which was already very fast.

Sinon fired, the bullet plunging into the eye socket of the mutant. The super mutant died, a red sign flashing over the head.

Sinon prepared her next bullet, aiming for one of the last three super mutants.

She fired, but missed the target entirely. The bullet disturbed the dust as it hit the ground.

Sinon quickly slid another bullet into the gun, wrenching back the bolt.

She placed another few in a similar way, before once again lining up a shot.

Argo had killed one with a lucky shot from her MAC 10, and another had a leg missing from mid-thigh down.

Sinon fired at the last standing mutant, her aim proving true as the bullet slid through the ear into the skull. Sinon watched for a second before starting to pack up the supplies that she had taken out. She emptied her rifle of bullets, and placed the remaining ammunition back into her inventory.

"Sinonon, you on your way down?"

"Yeah, on my way," Sinon responded to Argo.

Hidden Quest Objective Reached!

Escort the stranded wasters back to their camp.

"Argo, we completed this part of the mission. We have the next segment."

"Sinonon, you do know that we have the same notification system, right?"

Sinon gave an embarrassed blush. "I know that."

"Sure. Anyways, get your ass over here. We have to escort them, but you may not need to be close as long as I stand near them."

"Aight, I'll be watching from the nearby hills. Comms are still open if needed."

As she was speaking, Sinon double-checked that her pistol was holstered at her side. Sure that her pistol was there, she started sprinting down, her stamina bar slowly lowering down to nothing. She raced across the hills, making sure to keep one eye on Argo's situation.

Argo was starting to walk with the stranded wasters toward somewhere in the distance. Argo was fine for now, but that might not be the case for long.

Sinon was walking a bit ahead of Argo, not expecting any trouble for a while, when a call came from the radio. "Sinon, enemies appeared on the road almost surrounding the group I'm escorting."

"Roger."

Sinon materialized her rifle and set to lay it on the ground. Ghouls weren't really her favorite, mostly because they smelled awful. The long rotted flesh was simulated just a bit too well for Sinon's comfort.

The first ghoul's head exploded from the shot that Sinon fired. The sound of the rifle echoed back to her from the hilly area.

Ratcheting the rifle back, Sinon fired again. The next ghoul fell, its leg in more than one piece.

Argo fired into one of the four remaining ghouls on their feet. The rifle blasted it apart. Argo quickly spun to the next ghoul, and another burst fired out of her weapon. The ghoul was able to tank the damage, the bullets mostly dealing superficial damage.

Sinon quickly aimed at the ghoul running at Argo, and fired, shattering the chest of the ghoul.

Two ghouls remained. Argo finished reloading and finished off the downed ghoul.

The two remaining ghouls ran at a brisk pace to Argo. Argo fired one burst, then another. Both ghouls fell.

"Alright! None of the NPCs we were supposed to guard died. Yes!"

"Argo, let's keep moving."

"Fine. Let's keep doing the mission." Sinon could almost feel the pout over the radio.

Argo kept walking forward.

Two ghouls came over the top of a hill in front of Sinon. Sinon quickly pulled out her pistol and fired at the ghoul. "Argo, two ghouls at my position. Taking care of them."

"Aight. Have fun."

Sinon almost shook her head but decided not to. She entered VATS and aimed for the head of the ghoul on the left. There was a 95% chance that it would hit, so she fired three shots at the ghoul. It took two hits before it died, the first only clipping the ear. Sinon quickly aimed for the ghoul to her right. She fired a non-VATS shot which hit the side of its neck, then fired another VATS shot aiming for the head.

The shot hit the head and it splattered, bits of bone and flesh scattering the ground.

"Taken out. Continuing to progress."

"Hear you, Sinonon."

Sinon began walking again, no longer having to run, so she slung her rifle along her back and holstered her pistol on her hip.

"Sinon," Argo's voice came through, very worried. "We may have a problem."

"What is the problem?"

"Deathclaw."

"Shit."

"Pretty much, yeah."


	4. Armor Piercing is an Odd Term

CH. 4: Armor Piercing Does Not Always Pierce Armor

Sinon was not happy. In fact Sinon was panicking. Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit, oh shit, oh shit. That's a fucking Deathclaw Alpha Male Boss!

The reason why she was panicking? Well, let me explain.

Deathclaws were the death of many players, as they were much stronger and faster than players. They also had one of the highest non-boss health bars in the game.

The health of bosses that were based on mobs that could be found normally was the B[meaning base health]*75/(50-x). For every additional player more than 1, the health was increased by fifty percent. For example, a Deathclaw had a base health of 500. As a boss, the Deathclaw would have 500*75/(50-x), x being the area or quest level. After a level 49 area or quest, this would stop and would instead switch to a different leveling a level 30 quest like Sinon and Argo were on, that meant that a boss Deathclaw would have 1,875 health. If one more person was added, it would have 2,813 health.

This would mean that the boss Deathclaw had a health of 2,813. Unfortunately, this Deathclaw was not one of the ones that would be found randomly in the wild. This was a Deathclaw Alpha Male with multiple surrounding normal Deathclaws.

The Deathclaw Alpha Male had a base health of 750. This meant that the Alpha Male Deathclaw that Sinon and Argo had found had a health of 4,219.

Essentially, Sinon and Argo were screwed.

Seeing the enemy's health bar, Sinon realized the danger they were in, as the defense of a Deathclaw was fairly high for any creature and being a boss just made it all the more difficult. It had armor plating around most of its body, the stomach being visually the weakest, but still fairly strong.

"Argo, this is a boss Deathclaw. Based on its color, it is a Deathclaw Alpha Male."

"Well, see you in the afterlife, Sinonon."

Hidden Quest Objective Reached!

Protect the stranded wasters.

No wasters saved: 1 random World-Class weapon

1 waster saved: 100% random World-Class, 5% random Reality-Class

2 wasters saved: 100% random World-Class weapon, 10% random Reality-Class weapon

3 wasters saved: 125% random World-Class weapon, 15% random Reality-Class weapon

4 wasters saved: 150% random World-Class weapon, 20% random Reality-Class weapon

5 wasters saved: 175% random World-Class weapon, 25% random Reality-Class weapon

No damage to wasters: 200% random World-Class weapon, 100% random World-Class weapon, 30% random Reality-Class weapon

This quest has not been completed successfully. Double rewards if completed.

If all wasters are saved with no damage with two or more players: two World-Class weapons of each player's choice, with a World-Class armor set of each player's choice will be rewarded.

"Well, let's make sure the NPCs take no damage. And ourselves too, if we can help it."

"Yeah."

Sinon immediately placed her rifle on the ground and set it up. The rifle was quickly ready to fire, so Sinon started to take out the surrounding Deathclaws. The only good thing about the boss being an Alpha Male instead of a Deathclaw Mother was that more Deathclaws would not appear.

Sinon's quick calculations were not always that close, but the wind had died down, allowing for faster firing.

Argo started to distract the Deathclaws from getting close to the NPCs while Sinon took aim and fired at them.

"Argo, just accept what I am about to send you, then deploy it in the middle of the NPCs."

Argo didn't answer, but Sinon sent it anyway.

A shield bubble formed around the NPCs that should be able to take two hits from a Deathclaw. Sinon had gotten it from a quest.

"Thanks."

Of the 10 Deathclaws including the Deathclaw Alpha Male, 5 remained.

Sinon quickly tried to take out the last four normal Deathclaws. She hit three, killing one and wounding the rest. Her rifle only did 150 damage per shot, as it was an Epic-Class weapon along with all of the modifiers that were on top of that. The critical hits did 220, which happened about every other shot.

If Sinon fired fast enough, she could fire two shots in rapid succession, hopefully hitting both. Argo stayed outside of the bubble and quickly changed to an RPG. She took aim at a Deathclaw, but had to abort her shot as the Deathclaw Alpha Male started running towards her.

Sinon fired at the Deathclaw Alpha Male, trying to draw aggro. It didn't work, but the shot was a critical hit, dealing around 200 damage. Argo fired her RPG at it, dealing a headshot critical. As she was too close to the blast, Argo took some damage, but it stunned the beast for almost ten seconds.

Argo was able to sprint away before the Deathclaw Alpha Male could recover and Sinon quickly fired and killed the rest of the normal Deathclaws.

Now, only the large beast remained and the stun effect on it ended.

Argo was thankfully far enough away from the largest Deathclaw to not be in immediate striking range. Sinon reloaded her weapon quickly and fired at the beast. It hit an arm, and only did around 100 damage.

Argo continued to stay away from it and tried to reload her RPG quickly, then brought it to bear. The RPG was fired, but it missed, flying off into the distance.

The beast started running toward Argo, and Sinon fired at it dealing some damage.

Unfortunately, as it continued toward Argo. Argo quickly had to take evasive maneuvers, trying to get away from the beast as it ran straight for her. Sinon had aimed another bullet in the few seconds that she had before it reached Argo.

Now only a small distance away from Argo, Sinon fired, a bullet striking the beast in the face, her armor-piercing bullet not doing a whole lot to the thick, scaly skin of the Deathclaw.

The bullet did more damage than the earlier bullets, a solid two hundred forty-something damage, which Sinon ignored before she was quickly reloading her rifle.

Another AP bullet entered her rifle, one of her remaining 9. Sinon didn't carry too many bullets, as they contributed to her total weight.

Sinon quickly triangulated the shot and fired at the Deathclaw in a similar spot. Her second AP round hit the torso, hitting at just about the stomach area.

This bullet was apparently critical, doing another 15% damage. The round did almost 300 damage.

The temporary break allowed Argo to quickly scramble away from the beast. Argo, now a bit away from the large Deathclaw, reloaded her RPG again.

"Sinon, I don't have many rounds left for my RPG." Sinon was quiet for a few seconds before she fired another AP round.

"Yeah, I don't have many of my own rounds left. I only have seven AP and a few normal rounds left. Based on the damage that they are doing, they won't be enough to totally kill it, even with your own RPG shots."

Argo fired her RPG, doing around 250, another critical. Sinon aimed once again and fired. This time it hit the monster's right arm on the armor plating, doing another 250.

Argo reloaded her RPG but had to abort it when the Deathclaw got closer. Argo ran away from the boss, but the beast went for a lunge, flying toward Argo. The claws of the Deathclaw seemed like there would be an inevitable bisection on Argo.

Sinon rapidly cranked back the bolt and went through the motions to fire, a bullet rocketing to the boss. The Deathclaw's arm went off course, as a bullet pierced the weaker skin on its wrist, the hand violently exploding off. The Deathclaw went a bit to the side, the weight missing from losing its hand throwing its balance off.

The Deathclaw still hit Argo, but it wasn't anywhere near as seriously as if she had been hit full on. She still almost died. Argo quickly used a super stimpak, trying to gain back the health, to not be on twenty health anymore.

Unfortunately, the damage that Sinon dealt almost caused the boss to be at half health. It was a small bit away from half.

The status effect of Bleeding appeared on the gray monster. The remaining fifty health remaining until the Deathclaw was at half health started ticking away.

50… 45… 40… 35…

Sinon screamed into the radio. "Argo, get the fuck out of there! The boss is almost at half health! It could have a different form!"

30… 25… 20...

Sinon had some sympathy for Argo's pain, but it would be useless if Argo died.

15… 10...

Argo started running from the Deathclaw.

5… 0.

The Deathclaw gave an earth-shattering roar.

Its form shifted, the scaly skin darkening to an almost gray-black instead of the lighter gray and the claws elongating.

The Deathclaw also grew almost a meter into the air, its legs growing up and out to fill its frame.

It gave another roar. A buff visibly started to affect the boss. A pop-up appeared and told Sinon and Argo what the buff did. All other status effects also disappeared.

Rage: 25% more damage dealt. The defense rating is removed for duration. 2:59 left.

"Argo, it has a buff that makes it deal and take more damage. We need to try to hit it quickly. The more damage that we can do in three minutes, the better."

"Got it, commander Sinonon!"

Sinon rolled her eyes.

"Just get to it, Private," Sinon replied, trying to get Argo to focus.

"I'm only a Private? Why must you abuse me so?"

Sinon rolled her eyes but quickly started aiming her rifle once again, an AP bullet ready to fire at the twitch of the trigger.

Sinon did just that, the bullet rocketing off, but the Deathclaw boss was able to dodge it somehow.

"Shit, I missed. Argo, you need to fire that rocket off quickly!"

Argo fired the rocket, doing a critical and dealing more damage from the lack of defense on the boss. The RPG dealt almost 300 damage and brought the boss under 2,000 health.

Sinon once again loaded up her bullet and aimed a bit to the left of the boss. This one hit it in the chest area, its thicker armor, and as such higher defense, not helping the damage. The bullet still dealt a little over 200 damage.

Rage: Duration - 1:57 left.

"Sinon, we only have two minutes left."

"Yep. I know."

Argo just ran from the boss, not having time to get away, as it was focusing almost entirely on her.

Sinon looked down the scope, the Deathclaw's movement making it harder to hit, but not impossible.

The scope marked an area in the path of the boss as it ran.

The bullet fired off, the Deathclaw running almost directly toward her, into the path of the bullet. This bullet hit it in the mouth, doing a super critical, which had double the damage boost of a normal critical, for almost 350 damage.

It also stunned the boss for 3 seconds.

Rage: Duration - 1:20 left.

Argo was able to get far enough away from it and fire off a round from her RPG. The RPG sent fire rocketing towards the Deathclaw. The shot hit its torso, flames parting on either side of it. A red number 287 flashed up.

"Sinon, this is my last round," Argo started, but quickly gave an exclamation. "It hit a quarter health!"

Green numbers started flashing around it. After a few seconds, the boss now sat on a new health of 1,500.

A buff also appeared on the boss.

Rage: Duration - 59 seconds left.

Impending Doom Approaches: If not killed in 2 minutes, the boss will summon a Deathclaw Mother with 2,000 health.

Sinon rapidly cranked the bolt back and fired. This bullet dealt a small portion over 250 damage. Argo also slotted for the last time into the RPG and fired it.

The RPG dealt another 300 or so damage.

Argo yelled over the radio, "Sinon, I'm out of ammo. I can't fire anything but my rifle now. That will barely do anything but chip damage. Do you want me to just kite?"

Sinon thought over that while sliding another of her AP bullets, one of her last 2, into the rifle. The chip damage won't be enough and will leave her vulnerable from an attack.

"Yeah, that's fine. Try to kite towards me, so I can try to get a super crit again."

Argo started sprinting toward Sinon, the boss trailing behind her. Argo was always just that little bit away from the boss's attack range.

Sinon fired again, the open mouth of the Deathclaw as it roared at Argo susceptible to a bullet. The bullet missed the mouth, instead hitting the boss in the hand that had not already been taken off by her earlier bullet. This shot took off the arm from the elbow down.

Red numbers popped up, showing that the bullet had done 300 damage.

Argo continued to stay just that little bit away but seemed to be slowing down fairly quickly. Sinon fired again, this bullet hitting the boss in the mouth, dealing over 350 damage.

Sinon was now out of her AP bullets and had to quickly slide a normal bullet, one of her last few into her rifle.

This bullet went flying toward the boss.

Rage: Duration - 2 seconds left.

1…

"Argo, fire at the boss now!"

Argo quickly took out her rifle and fired, only dealing 30 damage in the last small segment. The Deathclaw went flying toward Argo.

"Sinon, I hope you-"

Argo was cut off.

Sinon's bullet hit, right as the timer hit 0.

The bullet took the last 240 health from the boss. It dissolved, the rank breath from the boss ruffling Argo's hair before death affected.

Sinon saw a flash from Argo, and something broke, crystals and polygons flying.


End file.
